Five Netflix movies to keep an eye out for in October 2026
Sounds like Netflix has got a bit greedy this October, because apparently your free time belongs to them now, and judging by what’s coming next, you’d better get yourself a comfy couch because you are going to be glued to it all October.
While we’re saving the best for the next, you still have plenty left in the box, starting with Schumacher ’94: The Birth of a Legend, revving things up for Formula One fans, while Who Is Martin Mull? takes a closer look at the late comic’s wonderful career, so there you go, two options already.
Then Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald is coming your way, along with The Disciple that tells you the story surrounding Wu-Tang Clan’s one-copy album, and tells us you are not curious about that.
Still, you can’t watch everything, can you? So, rather than chuck the whole catalogue at you, we have picked five films worth keeping on your radar this October.
Five Netflix movies to keep an eye out for in October
Animals (Ben Affleck, October 9th)
Now, Animals gives Ben Affleck one hell of a problem to deal with, because he is playing Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped right in the middle of his campaign.
Bad enough, you’d think, except Mark and his wife, Abigail, played by Kerry Washington, now have to find the ransom and, as if they haven’t got enough on their plate, deal with the secrets they have been keeping from each other.
Affleck directs and co-writes it as well, while Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun have joined the cast. Getting the boy back is only half the battle, because Mark and Abigail’s marriage is hardly in good health to begin with. So they have got their work cut out, basically: save their son and survive the fallout. What do you think will happen?
Sacrifice (Romain Gavras, October 16th)
Yes, we know you just dealt with a marriage falling apart, but this one is no comfort watch. Sacrifice is not a brand-new Netflix arrival, but something that was released last year and will now finally be streaming.
Chris Evans plays Mike Tyler, a washed-up action star trying to get his way into the limelight at an environmental gala in Greece when, bang, Anya Taylor-Joy’s cult leader Joan takes everyone hostage and insists human sacrifices are the way to stop an extinction-level catastrophe. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. Mike turns up chasing a comeback and ends up facing a volcano, as you do.
Romain Gavras, who made Athena, directs, folding Greek mythology and Joan of Arc into the mix rather than following one story wholesale, and with Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich and Charli XCX knocking about too, subtlety clearly isn’t entirely the name of the game.
The Storm (Josephine Bornebusch, October 15th)
Time to pack your bags now, because we are off to Sweden next with The Storm, a Swedish drama that takes us into northern Sweden for Filip’s 45th birthday at the Swish farm estate he bought with his wife.
Old friends are there, dinner gets going, everyone’s having fun, and then the weather has other ideas. A ferocious storm traps the lot of them inside, and before you know it, there is nowhere to nip off to when things get awkward. Lovely. Before long, the cabin fever starts doing its worst. Tempers fray, and old grudges come back in the picture.
Sounds a bit like Animals, right? You are in the middle of a problem which, in turn, brings up the old grudges. Here, in fact, a few betrayals come crawling out of the woodwork, so the storm outside becomes the least of their problems. Josephine Bornebusch writes, directs and stars, with Gustaf Skarsgård, Aliette Opheim and Filip Berg.
Collision Course – (Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, October 30th)
Hold on, keep the bags packed because from Sweden, we move to Madrid for Collision Course, where a group of robbers storm a bank during an economic crisis and go in thinking they have got the job sewn up. What is with Spain and money heists, man?
Soon enough, things start slipping out of their hands, and the robbery turns into a fight to stay in control. You can see why nobody wants to show their cards too early. Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, known for DarkBlueAlmostBlack and Seventeen, steps into thriller territory for the first time here, with Laia Costa, Karra Elejalde, Luis Zahera and Tamar Novas in the cast.
Netflix is keeping the characters under wraps, and that suits the setup because you are meant to be wondering who is telling the truth and who is playing their own game. By the time it all starts closing in, you are there with them, trying to work out who to trust.
Tyler Perry’s Doing Life – (Tyler Perry, October 2nd)
After having a fantastic September with Beauty in Black and Why Did I Get Married Again?, Tyler Perry is back with a brand new movie, Doing Life. Sure, it changes the mood a bit, but don’t get too comfortable, because Anika is trying to keep her head above water as a single mum.
Then Carousel comes back into her life, an ex-con who has turned things around but never had the chance to show what he can do. They have got history, and before long, there’s something starting between them.
Tyler Perry writes and directs, and this is very much his lane: people carrying baggage, trying to make something decent out of what they have got. Baker comes from All American: Homecoming, while Reeves appeared in The Six Triple Eight, and Tamberla Perry and Danielle Moné Truitt are here too. So yes, it’s softer than the thrillers around it, but that might be the whole point.